A few days ago the Israeli army deputy chief of staff gave a speech in which he called on Israeli society to engage in self-reflection because, according to him, the atmosphere in Israel is reminiscent of 1930�s Germany. Then, as people were still scratching their heads in amazement, the Israeli army embarked on yet another ruthless attack on Gaza. Typical of Israeli hypocrisy, this general sees no wrong in being a willing executioner, to borrow from the words of the late Edward Said, serving the Israeli army for thirty-five years. Presumably he was talking about others, perhaps people in Israel who blatantly talk about murdering Palestinian children and mothers without shame. Needless to say, he is not one of those, because he is just following orders, serving his country and all he really ever wanted was peace.

Standing somberly at a Holocaust Day memorial ceremony, major-General Yair Golan bowed his head and read the remarks he prepared for this occasion: �We must uproot the budding of intolerance, violence, and the budding of moral decline.� He must have been asleep when they taught about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that occurred in 1948. Oh, never mind, they do not teach about the ethnic cleansing in Israeli schools, in fact teachers in Israeli schools are forbidden from mentioning the �Nakba� the Palestinian catastrophe. The moral standard held by Israel is at such a low that there is very little from which Israel can decline. There is also no, as the deputy chief of staff called it, �budding of intolerance and violence.� The evidence shows that the flowers of Israeli racism bore fruit long ago, and Israeli state sanctioned murder of civilians has been common practice for the past 68 years.� Indeed, having been ripe on the vine for nearly seven decades, the rotting and stench of Israeli racism and violence are reaching the heavens.

General Golan referred also to the purity of weapons, saying, �We have a tradition in the IDF to treat problematic behavior with courage and honesty, to take responsibility for the good and the bad. We never hide and never make excuses. Our way is to tell the truth and take responsibility even if the truth is harsh and the responsibility is too heavy to carry.�� These are strong words indeed, but they fail to represent the historical reality of the IDF truthfully. �By mentioning �problematic behavior� he was indirectly referencing the execution of a young Palestinian by an Israeli soldier. But is executing a wounded innocent man that should never have been shot in the first merely �problematic,� is it not say, criminal?

True to the tradition of the Israeli security forces, General Golan repeats the myth and distorts the reality. A reality of massacres that are masked as �war on terrorism.� A reality of ethnic cleansing and genocide , masked as heroism and revival of the Jews. A reality of a regime of racism and apartheid masked as a democracy. General Golan uses the term �purity of weapons,� as though he was a samurai and uses his sword to eradicate injustice. Israel has been murdering innocents and executing unarmed civilians for nearly seven decades, yet Israeli generals and politicians talk of morality and purity of arms.

General Golan began his mandatory military service in 1980, the same year as I. Interestingly, though I never met him, he served in the same unit as I, and later became its commander. But whereas I realized that Israel was committing crimes and engaged in destruction of another nation and I swore never to return to military service, he made it his career.

He served as a commander in every major and minor combat operation over the last thirty-five years, making him an excellent candidate for prosecution by the International Criminal Court. He served in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and he served as a commander during the first and second intifadas. He was a commander in �defensive shield� otherwise known as the Jenin massacre, and in �Cast Lead� also known as the Gaza massacre of 2008-2009, and he served in every attack on Gaza since.� Still he is not ashamed to look at others, whoever they may be and demand self-reflection and an uprooting of violence. It is hard to imagine anyone today with more innocent Palestinian blood on his or her hands than this man. It is hard to imagine anyone who is responsible for more violence and destruction than General Yair Golan.

Israelis live in an illusion that there is a �legitimate� Israel and another Israel that is not �legitimate.� Israelis who benefitted from the original ethnic cleansing of Palestine of 1948 and then set in motion the apartheid regime that governed Palestine until 1967 are legitimate. They took Yaffa and Lydda, Bee�r Sab�a and Isdud and turned them into Yafo and Lod, Beer Sheva and Ashdod and they made the Naqab desert bloom and called it the Negev even as they forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes and off of their lands. But they are legitimate. Then, in 1967 this �legitimate� Israel was forced into a war in which it had no choice but to occupy the rest of Palestine, or what is known as the West Bank and Gaza. And while they fully intend to return those �occupied territories� for peace one day they have invested billions of dollars in building cities and farms, highways, shopping malls and industry, all for Jews only in those same areas. The Jews who live in those �occupied territories� are called settlers, unlike the other legitimate Israelis who are somehow not settlers because they live on land that was stolen and occupied in 1948.

Still the government of Israel supports these �other� Israelis, and takes good care of them, after all, they are Jews. The Israeli police force makes sure they are safe and the Israeli army offers them security from Arab terrorists who live nearby � they get good roads, water and electricity even though very often Palestinians towns and villages in those same areas have dirt roads, little or no electricity or water supply. The state of Israel no longer refers to these territories as �occupied� but as Judea and Samaria. But if the good, legitimate Israel really just wants peace, why do they keep electing politicians like Sharon and Netanyahu?

So what�s an Israeli general supposed to say on Holocaust Remembrance Day? After thirty-five years of burning, killing, destroying and humiliating Palestinians he calls out other Israelis for their racism and vile discourse. One can be sure that upon retirement, which now may well be earlier then he had previously expected, this general will call for peace and say that he had to do what he had to do but that deep down inside he wants peace and prosperity for all. �Someone needs to tell this general that if Israel reminds him of Nazi Germany, then he is a senior officer in the SS.

This article was written by Miko Peled for American Herald Tribune on May 8, 2016. Miko Peled is an Israeli writer and activist living in the US. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. His father was the late Israeli General Matti Peled.